Hamas accused Israel of killing Ismail Haniyeh, who was in Tehran for the inauguration of Iran’s new president.
Ismail Haniyeh, one of the most senior Hamas leaders, was assassinated in Iran, the country’s Revolutionary Guards Corps and Hamas said on Wednesday, a severe blow to the Palestinian group that threatens to engulf the region in further conflict.
Hamas accused Israel of killing Mr. Haniyeh, who led the group’s political operations from exile in Qatar. Hamas made the statement on its official Telegram account. He was in Tehran to attend the inauguration of the newly elected president of Iran.
Mr. Haniyeh was a key figure in Hamas’s stalled cease-fire negotiations with Israel, and his assassination makes the prospects for a deal even more unclear.
Israel’s military has not commented and said it does not respond to reports in the foreign news media. In recent years it has carried out a number of high-profile assassinations in Iran, rattling the country’s leaders and prompting a security overhaul including the ouster of a top security official.
On Tuesday, the Israeli military said it had carried out a separate strike on a Hezbollah commander in Beirut’s southern suburbs. The target of that strike, Fuad Shukr, was a senior official who serves as a close adviser to Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, according to three Israeli security officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive details.
The targeting of two senior leaders of two Iran-backed groups within a matter of hours could be an escalation in the region, which is reeling from months of high tensions since Israel began waging a war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip after that group led an assault in Israel on Oct. 7.
How either militant group responds could determine the course of the conflict and whether it engulfs the region into a war on multiple fronts.
Here’s what else to know:
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Iran is holding an emergency meeting of its Supreme National Security Council at the residence of the supreme leader, according to two Iranian officials. The commander in chief of the Quds forces who oversees the militant network of miltias is also at the meeting, the officials said.
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Iran’s new president, Masoud Pezeshkian, takes office facing the major security breach of failing to protect an ally. It raises questions about the safety of Iran’s top leaders who were in close contact with Mr. Haniyeh. Mr. Khamenei, met with him on Tuesday.
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Mr. Haniyeh became the leader of Hamas in Gaza in 2006. He moved to Qatar in 2017 when he was named the group’s political leader. In Gaza, he was succeeded by Yahya Sinwar, who is considered an architect of the Oct. 7 attacks on Israel, in which around 1,200 people were killed and around 240 taken hostage.
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In April, three of Mr. Haniyeh’s sons were killed in an Israeli strike near Gaza City. Israel identified the three adult sons as Amir, Mohammad and Hazem Haniyeh and said all three were Hamas military operatives.
